what is happening?

how will it affect me?

 The Information SuperHighway is radically affecting the nature of work and the terms and conditions of workers. A 'worker' used to be secure in their future. Now more and more of us are working on short term contracts, as freelance or self-employed, very often without benefit of any formal contract.

Agency work and outsourcing are proliferating, often to the disadvantage of unrepresented workers, forced to accept low pay rates and unfavourable terms and conditions for fear of the work passing to a cheaper area of the globe.

How will this affect me? This following story may ring some bells.

how will it affect me?

what can I do about it?

Once upon a time there was a world of certainty, cradle to grave, in which the plain man knew where he stood. He went to work every morning, he did what he was told, and he kept his nose clean. Then, after some years, often forty or so, he retired. He graciously accepted his gold watch and trotted off home to annoy the wife (who had never been entirely sure what he did from 9 to 5, but surely knew that whatever it was, it kept him well from under her feet.)

And then someone invented the computer and discovered that information could be sent along the telephone lines. The telephone lines stretched from one end of the globe to the other (with strategic breaks) and information could be passed in the bat of an eyelid from Orkney to India. This meant that the plain man was part of a larger community. A global community. What he did in one office could now be done in any office in the world. And cheaper. Now, when he went into the office every day, sure that he had a job to do, he had a nasty shock. What he did in Essex could be done, equally efficiently in the Philippines, and for less money. His employer made an economic decision. End of the plain man's job. Hello the Philippines. No gold watch, no job security and no peace for the wife.

But in the meantime, the wife had new prospects. She had stayed at home to raise the family, just as any good wife and true should do. She thought this meant no work for her, but she underestimated the power of the computer and those telephone lines. She became an available worker. But she had no expectations of a living wage - that was what her man expected as bread winner. Work for her was pin-money. She had no expectations of a career, she gave that up to raise the children. So if some thoughtful employer came along to offer her work, pin-money was good enough. After all, her main qualifications were in organising, keeping the family on an even keel and looking after her man. And who pays for that?

This is how we've got here today. Low expectations, expectations of the security of being told what to do, and taking no personal responsibility - after all, isn't that what the high-paid executives are paid to do for us?

The future projections for the digital age are frightening. There will be a skilled class of workers and an underclass. The underclass will dodge from day to day, scrounging to keep the family together (for for sure, we'll all still have families!), at the mercy of the big employer who occasionally drops small work crumbs from his table.

Fear will fuel this society. The underclass will be kept submissive by the fear that someone else will do the job cheaper, somewhere else in the digital world. There will be no threat from organised labour, for how can labour organise when each worker is isolated in their own home and the next worker is trapped in their own home, thousands of miles across the globe. You'll take what you can get, and be thankful.

There is an alternative scenario.

It begins with the launch of Critical Path

Critical Path will address the problems of the changing nature of work as it moves across the digital freeways.

Critical Path wants to make a difference to your working terms and conditions. It asks for your support.

At this moment a series of informative articles by lawyers, journalists and workers themselves is being assembled. Subjects covered include legal rights for short term contract workers, temporary workers and globalisation, international contract law, social problems for isolated workers and more...

Future editions will address the definition of fair working terms and conditions and what is a fair rate for the job.

We will also keep you up to date with futures - who wants to control the Internet gateways, how is your privacy affected, who will own the rights to your work and working time.

Contributions are sought from all areas of the globe. Tell us your experiences and concerns and add to our global knowledge.